UK variant of COVID-19 confirmed in KP, Health official say

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department has confirmed the presence of British coronavirus in the province.

According to the details, Health Secretary Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah in his statement said that samples from 20 patients were sent to Islamabad for testing, out of which 10 patients were found to be infected with the UK version of the killer virus.

According to the health secretary, 6,000 corona tests are being done daily in 20 laboratories in the province. The rate of positivity is more than 10% in 9 districts including Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan.

The Health Secretary has appealed the masses to implement SOPs devised to curb the spread of infection.

On the other hand, according to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) 3,301 new Covid-19 cases and 30 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.

NCOC said that the total number of cases in Pakistan jumped to 637,042 with 13,965 confirmed deaths. 

NCOC said that at least 38,282 tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours, overall 9,895,515 tests have been conducted so far. Furthermore, 586,228 patients have recovered while 2,564 are in critical condition.

So far 263,664 Covid-19 cases reported in Sindh since outbreak, 202,743 in Punjab 81,204 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 53,136 in Islamabad, 19,374 in Balochistan, 11,946 in Azad Kashmir, and 4,975 in Gilgit-Baltistan.